4 of my elves

Check it out! I could only make 4 elves, but I'm hoping that Annagail won't mind.

My Elves!

Welcoming Joy

Lately, I am finding myself in an all out battle to find joy. I am tired a lot of the time and I just don't seem to be applying the time needed to BE joyful.

This season of life for me brings with it a lot of physical and emotional work. Two of my five (ages 3 & 4) are right smack dab in the middle of "The NO Years", meaning that I feel like I say NO and am disciplining them 23 of the 24 hours in a day. My youngest babe is in a very physically demanding phase of life where she is held a lot to keep her out of things (like the Christmas tree!!). She is also still nursing, so I can't remember when the last time I slept a whole night was. My oldest two at nearly 7 & 6, have entered into a WHOLE OTHER REALM, where they have very tender feelings and it takes enormous amounts of time to rightly disciple them into self-control. Even though they require a good bit less disciplining, they require more explanation :)
All of this is doable with God right? I am getting through, but I am hiding my joy in it.

I did a short Bible study a few years ago on Thessalonians and there was one thing that stood out to me. In the letter to the Thessalonians, Paul comments on the fact that they "welcomed" joy despite the suffering they were enduring. That has always stuck with me that he used the word "welcome". He didn't say that they were bathed in joy or that the Lord showered them with joy as if it were a phenomenon of sorts. They welcomed the joy. It is an action that they did. They actively sought and invited in the joy that was theirs. The use of this word causes me to picture joy just standing at the door to the home and the people opening the door and saying, "Come on In!" (I realize that is a little elementary of an illustration, but bare with me as I have been planning 1st grade lesson plans all day). The Thessalonians didn't hide from their joy behind the persecution and hardships they were enduring.

The significance for me is that joy is part of our lives as Christians. Having been given the gift of forgiveness and redemption through the precious and sinless blood of Christ, we HAVE joy. Often times, I hide it away in the business or chaotic seasons of my life and I look upward with hands wringing, wondering when the Lord will rain upon me the joy that I "soooo deserve".(that word is a curse word in our home, BTW).) It is a pitiful thing. The Thessalonians were being persecuted for their faith (like many of my brothers and sisters in Christ are all over the world currently) and yet they welcomed the joy into their lives. I am having a hectic and busy life, chock-full of God's favored blessing and yet I am still looking for my joy. (?!?!?!?!?!)

This has to be my mission!!! I need to set out to welcome joy into my life again. It is there. I don't have to look farther than to my salvation to find a reason to be joyful. One step past that is the fact that I have a Godly husband and five great kids to care for. This sounds so easy, yet I struggle so much with this.

I think that part of it is that I have come to expect hardship. Instead of living free and being joyful for each new morning's oxygen, I have come to expect the trials that come into my life. I have taken on a practice of being "prepared" for the struggles, because somehow I have convinced myself that I am being proactive. Wanna know a secret? Anticipating hardship seems to have the opposite reaction than what one might think it would. Instead of being READY to handle them, it makes me hardened and burdened by them 100% of the time. I stop living in the joy that was given to me on the cross. This is what I have done and what I need to correct in my life.

So, I am off now to open the door of my heart to the joy that was given me. Pray for me if you think about me. Change is hard, but I know that it will have a ripple effect in my life and I will be surprised at how life will look from the other side.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are off to visit our family for Thanksgiving! It has been over a year since we have made this trip. It will be our first road trip as a family of SEVEN!! I am praying for some MAJOR traveling mercy over the next week. We have many things planned, but quite a bit of unplanned time as well.

I pray too that you will be blessed with a wonderful day of Thanksgiving and that the love of our Lord will shine through you and on you in abundance!

So long for now : (

Some good friends, and the children's Pastor at our church, are moving away to take another pastoral position in another state. We had a reception for them last night and it was bittersweet for all of us, I am sure. They are a sweet, young couple with a young family. Watching my friend say her "goodbye's" to people last night, I couldn't help but to think back on when we left Georgia almost 3 years ago.

There is something about leaving the place where the Lord created your family that is a little scary. It goes without saying that becoming a Mother changes every aspect of your life. Learning how to nurture the life (or lives) that God places in your care is such a roller coaster of emotion. Then, when you get to a place where you think you are in at least SOME sort of "normal", the plan changes (ours, not His) and this unsettling feeling creeps into your chest. In hindsight (which is really the BEST way to look at ANYTHING, right?), our move was such a gift from the Lord; a gift to Nathan as he felt like he was (is) truly following God's true plan for our life and a gift for our family, because we learned and experienced a drawing together of our already close relationship that only an upheaval of familiarity can trigger. When you load up a U-haul and leave all of your familiar environments in a cloud of exhaust, you cleave like never before to the familiarity that you have and will always keep near to you; YOUR LORD & YOUR FAMILY.

As hard as it was to leave my home, my friends, and my church in GA, God has delivered to us a fantastic new familiarity that seems more like "home" in our hearts than ever before. He has a way of doing that doesn't He? I never thought that I would ever feel for a place the way I did our home in GA. Now I know that being "home" means dwelling peacefully within the path that God has made for me. When I am there, I am at home in my heart. It is the real definition of peace.

So to my friend I say "So long for now!". I didn't get to know you as well as I would have liked to, but I feel like I know you better than I do, because you remind me a lot of me : ) We share similar apprehensions and views on some things that are important :) I know that, this week, you feel like you are torn between two extremes of emotion depending on which way you are facing in your journey. Like I have said to you before though, peace is coming friend. And once you get to your new home and the Lord begins the work in you that He has purposed for you there, you will strike a balance between those two extremes. The peace of being on God's path for your family & ministry will settle the stirring and you will feel at home again before you know it.

God bless you! We will be praying for you & we want to see those Daddy Jr's of yours on an adorable Christmas card!!

Something is brewing and it isn't just my mulling cider!!

A few people have taken a sharp interest in a few resources that I have created for the discipleship my own children. I have found a printer (a former church member from GA) that has given us a wonderful price to have them printed up for mass sale. I am being encouraged to market them to Christian bookstores!!

This is the point where I freeze up! I have no idea how to do that? I don't know the first thing about it and that is very intimidating. I am guessing that, with Christmas right around the corner, NOW would be a great time to get them into a store, but I have to find out how.

If this goes like it has been projected to me, this would mean that Nathan could work less and take more classes. It would mean a lot of things for us.

Just sharing with you what I am up to here and a little slice of what is happening with us. Pray for us as you feel led. We are praying for wisdom of God's will in this. As always, we are grateful for our prayer warriors.

Once Upon A Fall Festival...

Not a lot of time to post, but wanted to share some photos of the kid-os from last night. We had a great time. It was good to NOT be worn out and in pain from pregnancy before we even got there this year : )


The theme this year was, "Once Upon A Time..."

Rapunzel

Goldilocks...AND the 3 Bears

Robin hood

Little Red Riding hood

The Cutest of the 3 Little Pigs

Ya'll know that I am a sucker for a good video, right?

This seemed like something good to share ona Sunday afternoon.

Sundays, historically, bring a relaxing afternoon after church here at our home. They also mark the start of our week. I find myself doing a lot of praying, thinking on, and preparing for the week ahead of me.

I found this video on a new blog-friend's blog and I found it very...inspriring. Enjoy!



Thanks Joanne!